Our plan to stay home for Christmas has proved to be very relaxing.

We anticipated a lot of resistance from our families, but none materialized. Many of relatives are going to come visit over the holidays. Some can’t or won’t, but it’s their decision (and they didn’t criticize ours).

We’ve had a foot of snow today, but it didn’t phase us. We’re not driving any place. Our driveway isn’t even shoveled out yet.

We aren’t making harried travel plans, not making an emergency trip to get the oil changed in our car, not furiously wrapping all the presents before we leave for the week.

We may never leave home again.

Just kidding.

Mostly.

There is one small drawback to staying home for the entire holiday weekend.

We have to cook. A lot.

You know I don’t mind cooking, but it is a wee bit overwhelming to have left menu planning until the week before of Christmas. There aren’t a lot of things in our pantry at the moment – how did we run out of chocolate chips? — so we’re going to have to do a good bit of shopping between now and Thursday.

The meals I’m planning are:

• Christmas Eve dinner

  Joe is Catholic. Though none of the other guests are Catholic, I’d really like to stick to Joe’s religious and family tradition of abstaining from meat on Christmas Eve. Joe is planning either crab cakes or Crab Imperial but my mom, sister, and I won’t partake of that.
  This is where I’m stuck. I don’t have many other ideas for Christmas Eve dinner. I’m headed to AllRecipes.com and some blogs tonight to see what I can put together for this one.

• Christmas morning breakfast

  This one is easy. We’re having Mom’s French Toast Casserole. I don’t know how many people will be eating breakfast at my house, but it doesn’t matter. This makes a 9×13 pan full, and the leftovers are just as good as when it’s fresh. It’s made entirely ahead of time and popped in the oven to bake.

• Christmas dinner

  We aren’t having a formal dinner. Don’t gasp. We are serving food; it’s just not a traditional roast turkey with mashed potatoes dinner. Usually, we all eat appetizers until we’re full and then stuff the “real food” down our gullets out of guilt.
  Not this year! We’re making all appetizers. We’re going to have a fancy Christmas feast of Baked Brie, Buffalo Chicken Dip, and several other To Be Announced delicious dips and sides. It’s going to be fabulous — and perfect for all-day snacking.

• Epiphany dinner

  Are you kidding? This isn’t until January 6, which gives me a lot of time to fret about the above meals before I begin fretting about this one.

So here’s where I insert a plea for help. What are you serving?

Photo courtesy of Carodean Road Designs on Flickr